U.S. Relaxes Limits on Use of Data in Terror Analysis

Source: NY Times

U.S. Relaxes Limits on Use of Data in Terror Analysis
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: March 22, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is moving to relax restrictions on how counterterrorism analysts may retrieve, store and search information about Americans gathered by government agencies for purposes other than national security threats.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday signed new guidelines for the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created in 2004 to foster intelligence sharing and serve as a terrorism threat clearinghouse.

The guidelines will lengthen to five years — from 180 days — the amount of time the center can retain private information about Americans when there is no suspicion that they are tied to terrorism, intelligence officials said. The guidelines are also expected to result in the center making more copies of entire databases and “data mining them” using complex algorithms to search for patterns that could indicate a threat.

3. Bye bye rights

Its a bird. Its a plane. Its your rights flying out the window under democratic president Obama. So now that they will not be limited to looking for terrorist activities, how do they justify their job? By going after people who are anti-war, who believe in free speech, people who think the banksters should go to jail. People who are against factory farming and animal cruelty. You know, dangerous folks who see the constitution being shredded by both parties.

4. Thank God they're implementing the Utah intelligence facility

now, with the covert monitoring of everything anybody does they'll have a huge pool of prospective political candidates to put their money behind - just find those with the most egregious vices and viola! congressional challenger